Our terms: We reserve the right to edit or delete any comment, so please post thoughtfully. We use your email address only to send you a one-time verification message confirming that you posted this comment. We also store your address to allow you to verify using other Web browsers in the future. For more info, see our privacy policy.

Quadra Vampires

If you're lucky enough to have a Quadra but you've been wondering what the excitement was all about, because yours just isn't that fast... you may be responsible! Rumour has it that the popular, free menu-bar clock utility SuperClock, among other useful doodads, can cause significant performance hits on your Quadra. It seems that many shareware programs, including SuperClock, were compiled with a version of THINK C lower than 5.0 and are not fully compatible with the '040 processor. SuperClock in particular will flush the cache each time a second clicks by, so you get an incredible performance hit!

[Adam: I asked Murph Sewall about this since he's working on a Quadra right now, and here are his impressions. In any event, things like this are a good reason to keep up with the latest version of your favorite shareware products since the most recent versions are the most likely to work without difficulty on the newest Macs.]

Murph Sewall writes, "I've been using SuperClock since I got the Quadra. On rare occasions, I run with all extensions off, but I can't say that I've noticed a great speed up when I do. I'll have to run some specific tests and see if I can find a noticeable effect. SuperClock may indeed flush the caches every second, but a whole second is eons to a 25 MHz processor (whatever performance hit may exist, it's nothing like the whack that occurs when you turn the caches off)."